


A Little Vacation

by OhhMyy



Series: Coming Back To Life. [26]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Past Abuse, Past Domestic Violence, Recreational Drug Use
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-28 04:44:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10824009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OhhMyy/pseuds/OhhMyy
Summary: Bucky's girlfriend heads off to visit her parents. What could possibly go wrong?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This can't be read as a one shot, unlike most other parts. I considered writing it all up as multi-chapter rather than having a separate part for the next half but I'm not sure yet, might change that at a later date but this installment is complete.
> 
> Anything triggering tagged, but please let me know if there's anything I've missed.
> 
> As usual, please leave feedback, even if you hate it.

Joe and Elena Johnson are not your average American couple. They aren’t even average American people but as Charlie pulls into the driveway of her childhood home she has never been more thankful that they are her parents. They are standing on the wide wooden front porch that surrounds the brick red farmhouse hand in hand, the late afternoon sunshine framing them in a sea of orange and Charlie takes a deep breath of country air as she turns the engine off and rolls up her window.

She hops out of the driver’s seat of her hired blue Freelander, swinging her legs until her feet hit familiar dirt ground and runs at full sprint towards the front of her parent’s farm; bags forgotten in the back of the jeep as the wind whips her hair. She runs with her eyes wide open, taking in the mountains behind the red farm buildings and smiles so hard her face aches as she embraces her parents.

Elena is a slender woman with light brown hair streaked with grey, a woman with kind eyes and tender smiles. She is dressed in a long flowing dress printed with flowers and butterflies, her hair tied back away from her face, tanned and weathered but naturally beautiful even with her age. She loves the blues, gritty poetry and hustling pool at the local bar. She hugs her daughter tightly, running her fingers though Charlie’s locks and smiles with the same warmth her child gives off.

Joe is tall and handsome, salty grey hair with just the slightest remnants of pepper black gracing his locks. He is strong willed and free spirited, a fan of comfortable jeans and dress shirts even during the hottest weather and hardest work. He drinks strong whisky, dances with his wife as often as possible and gives enormous bear hugs to anyone who needs or wants one. He kisses his daughter on the cheek, wrapping her in his strong arms and sways her back and forth whilst she laughs.

She is glad to be home.

Her father insists on bringing her bags inside without help and she wanders inside the familiar building, cluttered but clean; filled with photographs and trinkets and love. She takes a deep breath in before switching the kettle on and grabbing three mugs from the same cupboard they’ve always lived. Her mother regales her with stories of the locals from the past two years, laughing at her stories as if it’s the first time she’s heard them and updates her on the animals; two horses from her teens remain on the farm, aging in years and despite most of the livestock being long gone there are still enough chickens to cause trouble. Joe puts her bags in her old room and joins Elena at the kitchen table, grabbing a mug of tea Charlie has made before sitting.

Charlie leans against the sideboard as she sips her tea, easy smile on her face as she looks around the room, is hasn’t changed, everything in its rightful place and she glances fondly at the pictures littering the room before turning to watch the sun go lower out of the kitchen window. The voices have stopped and she turns to look at her parents whose eyes look watery. She arches a brow at them and her mother moves from her seat, takes the mug gently out of her hands, placing it on the counter beside her, and wraps her arms around her.

“Mama?” She whispers against the well-known smell of lavender in her mother’s clothing, wrapping her arms behind Elena’s back and feeling very much like a child.

“You’re smiling again, Baby” Her mother replies as she pulls back, arms still tangled around Charlies body and tears in her eyes threatening to spill over.

She has told them about the previous two years, told them why their calls were largely unanswered and why she didn’t visit, why their visits to her were always full of wariness and often cut short; never in depth but enough that they can see the difference, enough that her father, the peaceful hippie with love for everyone, wants to beat Andrew Black with his favourite tools. They have witnessed briefly the dull and glazed look in their child’s eyes, begged her to come back home with them to be met with an unconvincing “I’m fine” and they are looking at her now like she’s back from the dead. They know she’s been staying with Tony, they’ve heard from both her and him how her life at the tower is but to see her living and breathing again is more than they could have hoped for.

She smiles wider at them as Elena lets go, picking her mug back up and sipping it slowly as they barrage her with questions. She answers them all as best she can, tells them about life with the Avengers, tells them that Tony wanted to come with her but she selfishly wanted them to herself (finds out that Tony has been to the farm more than once whilst she was hiding away), tells them details about the new man in her life; reassures them he treats her well and that she’s fallen madly in love with herself all over again.

She offers to make them dinner and they steadfastly refuse, insisting on looking after her and telling her they’ve booked a table at the local pub in celebration. She feels like her heart is about to burst with joy and excuses herself to change for dinner; walking into her old bedroom. She inhales, closes her eyes at the familiar scent and blinks away the tears that have formed. Her room is the same, is always the same when she comes back; colourful tapestries line the walls, slung over her bed to create an awning, books on shelves and green plants in pots, plush carpet and old Indian rugs, it matches the rest of the house; big, eclectic and full of life. After two years forced into clean lines, no life and conservative skirts she can’t quite remember ever feeling as much like herself.

She ambles around the room, lovingly running her fingers over various objects, the leaves of flowers she’d planted, old photographs, the carved names in the walls Tony insisted needed to be above her bed and she smiles a smile laced in sweet and bitter nostalgia and the joy she feels will come. For the first time in a long time she feels like the future is solid, no longer a wash of fear but stable and loved and going somewhere.

She changes into a simple summer dress from the closet (clean and pressed by her mother she guesses) and heads out to dinner with her parents in the old farm pickup to the local she has missed, flooded with memories of late drunken nights, loud music and pool.

They sing along to the radio on the way, permanently tuned to classic rock stations before pulling up at a pub named ‘The Archers’, she snaps a quick picture on her phone and sends it to Clint with a smiley face she hopes he knows means she’s thinking of him, before typing a message to Tony.

Charlie: The Fat Cow isn’t the Fat Cow Anymore, it’s ‘The Archers’.

It pings instantly with a response, reminding her that 8pm in Colorado is 10pm in New York and that Tony is probably still in the lab with no intention of sleeping through the night.

Tony: I am appalled. Tell them their favourite child says Hello x

Charlie: I told them Hello earlier

Tony: You suck

Charlie: Love you x

Tony: You still suck x

She relays the message anyway and her parents laugh fondly before ordering. Dinner is a light-hearted affair full of fun and she’s internally grateful that a late dinner means they don’t run into any of her old friends; wanting alone time with her parents. She listens to then bicker between themselves, in love and in sync as ever, ordering various drinks to keep coming and sits back to enjoy her meal.

-

All three of them are somewhat inebriated when they re-enter the house. Her mother is singing “Ain’t No Sunshine” loudly whilst being supported by her husband who is stumbling slightly; this is not the first time she has seen her parents drunk nor will it be the last; a free and mostly rule free childhood resulting in an easy atmosphere and some fond yet odd memories. Charlie runs (wobbles, she definitely wobbles) ahead to pull out chairs for them to sit on, laughing loudly as she apologises to one that she kicks accidently. She turns to find her father grabbing a beer from the fridge and rolls her eyes fondly, watching her mother light up a suspicious cigarette before turn the radio on.

She excuses herself with hugs and kisses and manages to take her dress off and send a goodnight text to Bucky before tumbling face first into the pillow and falling asleep with a smile on her face, waking what feels like instantly from a peaceful and dreamless sleep to the bright shining sun and the noise of the farm.

For the next week she helps with the animals (having been scolded and warned against letting any animals out of their pens to give them their freedom; certain she will never live down that childhood incident), takes up her old chores and ventures into the local town with her parents. She picks up gifts for the family she’s left temporarily behind and receives updates about life back at the tower from every one of them, frequently overlapping but she’s glad they’ve not forgotten about her in the days she’s been gone. She enjoys the fresh country air against her face and develops a tan in the prickly dry heat. She relishes in family dinners, conversations and jokes; watching her parents with new found appreciation and love.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ending on a cliff hanger, second installment to follow in a few days. If you think it would be better all as one installment with more chapters please let me know.

Natasha’s phone beeps with an incoming text. She opens it and lets out a huge laugh, which by Natasha’s standards is a chuckle, and the group turn to look at her almost immediately. Tony’s phone beeps a second later and as he presses a button a laugh shoots from his mouth and he holds his phone up to Natasha who nods at him, smirk on her face. Clint and Bruce’s phones join a moment later and Bucky fishes his out of his pocket, staring at it in confusion and feeling slightly left out. Steve shoots him a confused look and holds up his phone so his friend can see its blank screen.

“Is it Charlie?” Wanda asks, siding up the Natasha to see the message, Natasha let’s her look at the phone and she answers in the affirmative. She’s been sending messages periodically since her arrival at her parent’s farm, roughly a week into her fortnight trip – sometimes to the entire group and sometimes to only one of them if she’d seen something she thought they’d like; Clint had received a picture of a restaurant named “The Archers” accompanied by a smiley face, Tony had received many pictures of the places he’d been as a teen, Natasha was sent a picture of an actual Black Widow Spider and Wanda was eagerly awaiting Charlie’s return due to a cryptic text of a bag with the message “I got you a present”. Bucky considered himself lucky that he was on the receiving end of loving messages from his girlfriend on a daily basis.

The messages she receives in return as exactly what she’d expected, Tony sends frequent pictures of himself and Bruce in the lab, forcing the scientists into reluctant selfies, updates on life at the tower and barrages of questions about her folks. Bucky, who has gotten a good handle on modern technology but cannot seem to fathom selfies, sends her one picture of his confused and grumpy face and then a video that lasts 10 seconds of him trying to take a picture before giving up and sending text messages instead. Natasha and Clint are informed about the lack of pictures from her boyfriend and take to sending her texts with message reading “Think he misses you, he’s pouting” and “Alert: man bun”, relevant pictures attached; she makes a mental note to kiss Clint upon her return after receiving a picture of Bucky weight lifting in the gym, half dressed, sweaty and hot.

“Don’t look so put out Torvill and Dean, you wouldn’t want this one” Tony jabs Steve playfully in the ribs and both men shoot him a look of utter bewilderment and Tony isn’t sure if they don’t understand the nickname or if they’ve been offended. He tosses his phone in Bucky’s direction, trusting him to catch it; he does. Bucky looks at the picture with a raised brow, it’s a shot of Charlie and her parents sitting at what looks like a kitchen table; there’s faint smoke in the background and both her parents have joints hanging from their mouths. The picture is captioned “Mama and Papa say Hi, don’t tell the elderly”, he assumes he and Steve are the elderly and frowns.

“Why wouldn’t she want us to see this?”

“Because you and Steve are decrepit and your girlfriend’s smoking a blunt with her folks”

“We’re not decrep….wait, she’s what?” Steve asks, grabbing at the phone in Buckys hand and holding the picture in front of his face “That’s not legal is it?”

“There you go Barnes, that’s why” Tony gestures towards Steve and makes a face that can only be described as “Duh” before snatching his phone back and changing his screensaver. He quickly takes a picture of himself waving and sends it back to Charlie with the caption “Tell M&P their favourite child misses them”.

Bucky’s phone goes off a minute later and he opens his phone, still frowning;

Charlie: Missing you x

No mention of her activities and he realises that in all the pictures the group have received, he’s the only one not to have seen or heard about her parents. He tries for teasing rather than annoyed, grateful that tone is hard to read via text.

Bucky: Having fun? ;)

Charlie: You saw the picture, didn’t you?

He doesn’t respond straight away, busy listening to the group chatter amongst themselves and watching Steve trying to contort his face so that it looks less outraged. His phone goes before he can send anything back and he chuckles at her before relaying the message to Stark.

Charlie: I’m going to kill Tony.

-

Later that evening his phone rings as he lays in bed watching old black and white movies; volume on low as he half pays attention, he smiles as her name pops up on his screen before tapping the accept call button

“Hey Doll”

“Would you believe me if I said my parents pressured me into it?” She rushes it out without greeting him but he can hear the smirk in her voice even with the distance.

“Not at all”

“In that case, I got high today, what did you do Honey?”

He laughs into the receiver, can practically see her grimacing as she drums her fingers on the table. He can hear the faint taps against wood in the background.

“Oh nothing much, found out my girlfriend is a criminal”

“Hey, I’m not breaking any laws in Colorado!”

“Do you break the law in New York?”

Her silence speaks volumes and he shakes his head with a smile that she can’t see.

“So your parents smoke dope then?”

“I did tell you they were hippies and nobody says dope anymore, Old Man”

“You did, didn’t tell me a lot else” he mumbles it out but knows he can hear her and it comes out as more of a dig than he intended, snide and scoffed, tone of the conversation suddenly changed.

“What does that mean?”

“Nothing Doll, I just…”

“You just what?” It comes out louder than she intended and he hears a voice in the background before she says gently “Yeah Mama, everything’s fine”.

“Everyone else knows about your parents, they’ve seen pictures or spoken to them. I’m the guy you’re with and the only one who hasn’t got a clue. Can’t help but wonder if that’s something to do with the fact you’re dating an ex assassin with a metal arm.”

“Hey, I’m keen on that ex assassin and his metal arm, won’t hear a bad word said about him” She’s trying for light and flippant but he’s silent so she huffs a sigh and continues. “It’s not you James, it’s them”

He scoffs.

“Okay that sounded like a bad line, that’s not that I meant. You’re almost a hundred years old James…Oh that sounded bad too, Christ I suck at this” She takes a deep breath and then the line is silent, he considers waving off the conversation but she’s back before he can tell her to forget it.

“You come from a time of strict morals and respectability, my upbringing is” The line crackles and he hears a bang in the background before a yell.

“No” He hears her say, horror in her voice and he’s instantly alert.

Another bang, muffled voices and some more cursing. He hears her scream and he can hear a struggle and his heart clenches; he’s on his feet before realising that he can’t do a damn thing.

“Charlie?”

The line goes dead.

“CHARLIE!”

-

She looks up, as something bangs in the background, just in time to see her father slump to the floor. Her eyes widen and her heartbeat picks up violently when she sees a familiar mop of shaggy blonde hair come around the corner, stepping over her father and heading towards her.

“No”

She tries to back up, knocking the phone to the floor; it lands with a thud. She curses out loud as she exits the chair but he’s moving faster than she can and she yells as he grabs her around the shoulders. She tries to throw him off but something blunt and heavy hits the side of her head and she feels herself fall to the ground before everything goes blank.


End file.
